Last week I took Travis (my little dog) on his first adventure to London. I've not taken him before because I'd just assumed it would be a massive ball ache. He's not the best at being still, wants to lick every single person he meets and leaves tiny little hairs everywhere. But he was actually a bit of a dream, he sat still on the train, went off to play with my friend Emma and her dog Frank while I went to the Om Yoga show and then we all met up for a late lunch at super dog and vegan friendly Farmacy in Notting Hill.

The restaurant is really beautiful inside, it's big and bright and everyone was very friendly, even bringing Travis and Frank a bowl of water. We started with a Raw Bruschetta to share which consisted of cashew ‘cheese’, marinara sauce & olive tapenade
on a flax and sunflower seed crust. Not only was it super beautiful (look at it!), it was packed with flavour and the perfect size to get us ready for our main courses.

Emma had the Asian Salad with seaweed, broccoli, spinach, cucumber,
mushrooms, sprouts & sesame seeds with
a sesame ginger dressing, I only tried a little, but it was perfectly put together, healthy and full of super savoury flavours from the mushrooms and seaweed.

I just can't resist any kind of Mexican food, so I went for the Mexican Bowl, with was sprouted coriander rice, romaine, guacamole, frijoles,
tomato ceviche, salsa & ‘sour cream’ topped with purple
potato mash, corn chips & chipotle mayo. It was incredible, really light, but still filling with a mixture of spicy and fresh ingredients. Both of the dishes were really well put together and we left feeling full, but not, roll me down a hill, I can no longer walk full.

I had a proper dilemma over ordering desert, because they also looked SO good, but I just couldn't fit it in that day (a rare occasion) so I've made a desert date with Emma and Frank for the next time we go to London. The best part really was that Travis got to come with me and after a long day of running around with Emma and Frank he could come in and have a little sleep on the seat next to me.

I love, love, love taco's/basically anything containing guacamole, salsa and soured cream. I had some tofu-fish taco's in London recently and they were so good that I've been meaning to recreate them for a while, so when Morinaga send me some of their firm silken tofu, this was the first thing on my mind to make with it. Don't be put off but the long ingredients list, guac and salsa and pretty similar and it doesn't actually take that long! I always recommend making your own tortilla wraps, (recipe below) but if you want to make it even faster, you can easily buy these! This tofu is perfect for this recipe, it's got the best smooth creamy texture, which is great under the crispy batter, give it a try!

1. Start by making making the tofu, remove from the packet, drain off any excess liquid and then slice in to bite sized squares.
2. Pop the squares in to a bowl and brush with the soy sauce, then leave to marinade while making the batter, guac, salsa and soured cream.
3. Make the batter by whisking all of the ingredients together and then pop to one side.
4. Make the guac by mixing all of the ingredients together in a bowl, then make the salsa the same way in a separate bowl.
5. Make the soured cream by blending all of the ingredients until smooth and creamy.
7. Start up your deep fat fryer and heat to 170 degrees.
6. Cut the nori sheet up to the same size as the tofu and stick it to the top of the tofu, then coat it with the plain four, tapping off any excess.
7. Coat the tofu in the batter, then pop in to the deep fat fryer for around 5 minutes, until golden brown, then transfer to kitchen roll to drain.
8. Build up your taco on the tortillas starting with some lettuce, tofu, then guac, salsa and soured cream, then eat it up!

I've been wanting to go to Wildebeest since discovering it on my last Cornish holiday, but as it's around 280 miles away it's proved a little difficult. Luckily I have a great friend called Georgie who lets me book whatever I can find holidaywise and just comes along for the ride. Naturally we planned all of our stay around food, vegan cafes, pasties and cakes, but this was the absolute highlight! We stayed just outside of Falmouth in a super cute Airbnb cabin (I can't rate it enough! check out my pics on instagram) and made our way here on our first night to start our holiday right.

Firstly, Falmouth is really lovely, in all my years of travelling to Cornwall it was my first time there and it had all of the Cornish charm with a beautiful bustling high street right by a harbour. Along this bustling high street you find the cute little Wildebeest, it's intimate, cosy and very welcoming. We ran in out of the rain (wouldn't be a British holiday without it right?) and checked out the menu, which had 3 starters, 3 mains and a selection of deserts, which changes seasonally, everything sounded really great, but we decided to start with the Smoked Tofu and Avocado Quinoa Sushi with Soy Sauce, Pickled Ginger and Wasabi, which was a total tasty delight, really fresh and flavourful.

For the main I went for the Spicy Butternut Squash Laska with Flat Rice Noodles, Mange Tout, Pea Tendrils and herbs. I'll kind of let the picture do the talking here, it was as good as it looks, once again really fresh, great flavours and enough kick to help me forget that it was mid October and raining outside.

Georgie had the Crispy Polenta Cubes with a Tomato and Oregano Sauce, Kale, Oyster Mushrooms, Almond Ricotta, Crispy Butterbeans and Micro Chives. Luckily as well as letting me book holidays, Georgie also lets me share food, so I got to try hers and then also finish off the rest of it when she couldn't finish (I have an endless stomach/maybe worms). I really liked this dish as well, it was filling and full of warming Autumnal flavours.

Despite feeling quite full by this point, we couldn't say no to desert! Georgie had the White Chocolate and Matcha Raw Cheesecake with Pistachios, Raw Caramel and Coconut Whipped Cream and I had the Chocolate and Orange Tart with Maple Roasted Almonds. Since going vegan there's been a bit of a cake shaped void in my life and these definitely gave me my fix (Georgie couldn't finish hers, but luckily she had me to help... such a good friend). They were both totally delicious, my chocolate and orange tart was rich and fruity and Georgies raw cheesecake was thick, full of goodness and had the most amazingly soft white chocolatey flavour.

I really can't fault this restaurant, I think its up there as one of my favourites. If you're down that way definitely add it to your list to try! And if you're not, it's 100% worth travelling for!

I've never really owned proper baking things, I'm the kind of person who lusts after nice cookie cutters, but uses an upside down glass and dried chickpeas instead of baking beans. But the lovely people at Debenhams sent me a whole range of Tala goodies, which were an absolute joy to use! So this weekend I went all out and made a proper rose and lemon meringue pie. I love rose and lemon together, the sharpness of the lemon with the floral rose flavour is just perfect and there really is nothing better than a home cooked lemon meringue pie. I made this version with Aquafaba (the water from a can of chickpeas) which makes awesome vegan meringue, it takes a bit of getting used to using, but once you've got it, it's incredible!

For the meringue:
1/2 the water from a can of unsalted chickpeas
75g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Start by making your lemon curd, pour the lemon juice, sugar and lemon zest in to a sauce pan and stick on a medium heat,stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Add the cornflour and coconut cream and cook, stirring constantly until it starts to thicken and bubble, then add the vegan margarine and cook, still stirring until it becomes really thick and coats the back of your spoon, add the rose extract and food colouring then remove from the heat and leave to cool while you make the rest of the pie.
3. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees and make the pastry by rubbing the vegan margarine in to your sifted flour with your fingers (or a food processor) and add a little water to bring it together in to a ball.
4. Roll the pastry outand drape over your round tin, pressing the pastry in to the sides, then poke with a fork, cover in baking paper and fill with the baking beans, pushing them in to the corners.
5. Pop in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown, once cooked leave on the side to cool.
6. Pop the chickpea water in a bowl with the cream of tartar and whisk until you have stiff peaks, add the sugar in 1 tbsp at a time and whisk for 30 seconds in between spoonfuls, keep whisking until the mixture is really stiff.
7. Pour the curd in to the pie case, then pipe the meringue on top using the S6 meringue nozzle from the queen icing bag set and then pop in to the oven for 10 minutes.

8. After 10 minutes the meringue should be nicely browned on the top, remove from the oven, leave it to cool completely, then pop it in to the fridge to set for around 4 hours before serving and eating!